by Jim Stackpool | Jul 13, 2026 | Activity v Productivity, Benchmarks, Business Performance, Capacity-To-Serve, Competitive pressures, Complexity, Consequences, Goals, growth, Growth Stress, Hiring advisers, Hiring Team Members, Measures of Success, Productivity, stages of growth, Talent
Charmeon runs a $1.8m advice firm. She has just hired another junior adviser. Her plan: hit $3m by 2030. She left a big bank in 2018, starting with no clients. She is excited about her firm’s future. She has a great team, good clients, aligned centres of influence,...
by Jim Stackpool | Apr 27, 2026 | Best Interests, best practice, Brand Development, Business Performance, Client Offerings, Complexity, Consequences, Consultative Approach, Delivering Value, dependency, Engagements, Financial Complexity, Productivity, Profitability, Retention, Separation of advice from product, valuable advice, value, Value Proposition, Wealth Management
Here’s a question that will tell you a lot about your firm’s positioning and pricing approach. When a qualified prospect meets your team for the first time, where do those vital initial conversations focus? If the answer is the prospect’s specific...
by Jim Stackpool | Mar 16, 2026 | Best Interests, best practice, Business Performance, Business Planning, Capacity-To-Serve, Case Studies, Consequences, dependency, Goals, Greater Good, Growth Stress, Leadership, LIfe Choices, Priorities, Prioritisation, Professionalism, Public Good, Quality Advice, strategy, Success Stories, Valuable Lessons, Wealth Management, worth
Sophie runs a great advice firm practice in Rockingham, WA. Unfortunately, as her firm grew, so too did her anxiety. It was a condition of growing worry caused not only by ‘big’ issues surrounding her clients, compliance and cash flows, but increasingly by simple...
by Jim Stackpool | Mar 2, 2026 | Access Price, Activity v Productivity, Advice Clients, advice skills, adviser fees, Business Performance, Business Planning, Certainty Advice, Client Care, Client Meetings, Consequences, Consultative Approach, Delivering Value, Meetings, Mindsets, Quality Advice, strategy, Success Stories, Successful On Purpose, Transformations, Trust Skilling, valuable advice, Valuable Lessons, value, Wealth Management
The principals at one of our comprehensive advice firms based in Redcliffe had a problem. They were charging $15,000 for new clients. Their four associate advisers were signing new clients closer to $6,000-$8,000 for their new clients. Clients would ask: “Will I...
by Jim Stackpool | Sep 7, 2023 | Advice is not a Product, advisers v distributors, best practice, Business Planning, capacity to serve, Capacity-To-Serve, Career Management, Consequences, cost to serve, Cost-To-Serve, future of advice, Future of Financial Advice, Measures of Success, Pricing Advice, Value Proposition
I can still see the surprised looks on their faces. It was November 1989, during a three-day “Agent As A BusinessPerson” workshop MLC asked me to design and facilitate. One of the last sessions for the twenty-five accountants and financial planners had...
by Jim Stackpool | Aug 24, 2023 | Advice Conversations, Advice is not a Product, advisers v distributors, Brand Development, Client Offerings, Conflict of Interest, Consequences, future of advice, Future of Financial Advice, Goals, Hayne Royal Commission, Leadership, Public Good, Quality Advice, Royal Commission, Serve the Greater Good, Value Proposition
Every August, I spend an evening at my old school answering questions from Year 11 students as they share their post-school career options. My sessions are generally Q&A events for kids interested in small businesses. Last week’s questions ranged from what...
